


A Vampire For Sherlock

by Tendergingergirl



Series: Pursuing Sherlock Holmes: Bill Mason, Sherlockian, Book Series [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 19:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17431742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tendergingergirl/pseuds/Tendergingergirl
Summary: January 22, 2018





	A Vampire For Sherlock

 

  


In **Pursuing Sherlock** , author Bill Mason goes lurking through the pages of canon to find links to vampires, and finds that there are actually very few. As Holmes states in The Sussex Vampire, _“The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.”_

What does first stand out in Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, he finds, are a different sort of vampire, all in the form of women.

## The Psychic Vampire

From Barbara Roden, in _The Journal of The New Conan Doyle Society, 1993,_ the definition of a Psychic Vampire: _“These creatures who do not resort to such crudites as sucking blood or turning into bats. They do not shun the daylight or sleep in coffins; instead, they appropriate the life forces of their victims by draining them of energy, and, in some cases, the will to live.”_  The stories with these characters include:

Kate Northcott in **John Bartington Cowles** She is said to have _“a mysterious and evil influenced over her prospective husbands”_

Miss Penclosa in **The Parasite** Uses her powers against a man she is in love with, causing _“a malevolent, psychological sapping of will”_

Sarah in **The Cardboard Box** _“uses her power and evil influence over her sister Mary and Mary’s husband”_

Isadora Klein in **The Three Gables** _“saps Douglas Maberley of his energy and willpower”_

Mason goes on to lament the lack of thrilling, evil (see traditional) Dracula-type characters. He refers to Psychic Vampires as not much fun. _“Too much Freud, too little Wes Craven.”_ But, he finds, there is one _._  There is indeed a vampire figure, and a story in canon that parallels the most famous, and influential vampire of all time.

##  _“A murderous aristocrat from Central Europe, with a history of violence and death behind him, moves to England in search of fresh victims. He leases a large house, which serves as his base of operations. He has unusual power and influence over women; a power he uses for evil. While in England, he destroys one woman and sets his sights on another; a woman of exceptional qualities. His threat to this woman is recognized by her friends and protectors, who are determined to save her. They call on the most knowledgeable and accomplished expert they can find; and he is assisted by a trusted friend, a medical doctor. Despite being a brilliant and totally ruthless foe who has anticipated almost every obstacle in his path, the villain is defeated and his intended victim rescued.“_

_“This is of course, the plot of **Dracula** , Bram Stoker’s most famous novel, which was published in 1897…But as Sherlockians, we should also recognize it, because this exact same story, in every single detail, is that of **The Illustrious Client** , 1924, in which Sherlock Holmes is retained to protect the lovely Violet de Merville from the designs of the murderous Baron Adelbert Gruner.”_

There are two references to The Illustrious Client in A Scandal in Belgravia.

Harry, The Equerry _“Client is illustrious, in the extreme.”_

Sherlock _“I’m used to mystery at one end of my cases. both ends is too much work.”_

Mason goes on to compare 18 points of similarity between the two stories, comparing characters, such as Holmes and Van Helsing, Dr. Watson and Dr. Seward, plus the sexual subtext that is not only in **Dracula** , but in every manifestation of vampire mythology literature and popular culture.

**Additional Personal Notes on Stoker and Doyle**

Abraham “Bram” Stoker (8 november 1847 - 20 april 1912) was an Irish writer wellknown for his novel _Dracula_. He was a friend of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was at his marriage on 18 september 1907. In that same year he conducted and wrote an interview with Conan Doyle: [Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Tells of His Career and Work, His Sentiments Towards America, and His Approaching Marriage](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arthur-conan-doyle.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DSir_Arthur_Conan_Doyle_Tells_of_His_Career_and_Work%2C_His_Sentiments_Towards_America%2C_and_His_Approaching_Marriage&t=NzAzZDJmOTdlYjFiNzFhM2NkNjkxOGEyMmE0ZTI0MWI2OWQ0MzgwYixqU1h5aWhybQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F168204772671%2Fabraham-bram-stoker-8-november-1847-20-april&m=1).

When Bram Stoker managed _The Lyceum Theatre_ in London, he produced the Conan Doyle play [A Story of Waterloo](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arthur-conan-doyle.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DA_Story_of_Waterloo&t=OTVjNzBjNWM2NDQyZjAwYmUxZjRlMWQ3MTdlNWIzZmFhNGY0ZWMwMSxqU1h5aWhybQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F168204772671%2Fabraham-bram-stoker-8-november-1847-20-april&m=1) (based on the story [A Straggler of ‘15](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arthur-conan-doyle.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DA_Straggler_of_%252715&t=NGY3YTBmZDY1MjVmNGNlZWMzNjk4ZGEyZDQ2MTJhZTI5N2U1N2JjYixqU1h5aWhybQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F168204772671%2Fabraham-bram-stoker-8-november-1847-20-april&m=1)). Conan Doyle wrote in his autobiography: _« I had written a short story called “A Straggler of ‘15,” which had seemed to me to be a moving picture of an old soldier and his ways. My own eyes were moist as I wrote it and that is the surest way to moisten those of others. I now turned this into a one-act play, and, greatly daring, I sent it to Henry Irving, of whose genius I had been a fervent admirer ever since those Edinburgh days when I had paid my sixpence for the gallery night after night to see him in “Hamlet” and “The Lyons Mail.” To my great delight I had a pleasing note from Bram Stoker, the great man’s secretary, offering me £100 for the copyright. »_

Stoker was a Sherlock Holmes fan. He thought he could use it as a model in a first version of _Dracula_ , as a specialist of psychic research named Singleton, with a policeman named Cotford and a Watson-like history teacher named Max Windshoeffel.

Stoker and Conan Doyle both collaborated with other writers on the serial novel: [The Fate of Fenella](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.arthur-conan-doyle.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DThe_Fate_of_Fenella&t=MWY1NzkwYzBjODkwM2JmNDFiYTRiMTIzOTMzMGUyOGRiZjVkMWRhZSxqU1h5aWhybQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A99US-dd59KEFK-T_oX2E5Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Ftendergingergirl.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F168204772671%2Fabraham-bram-stoker-8-november-1847-20-april&m=1), in 1892

 

 

 

 

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